Maski z kościoła w Inowrocławiu. Znaczenie płaskorzeźby romańskiej oraz jej miejsce w historii sztuki

Abstract

The last twenty years have seen intensified research into Romanesque architecture n Poland. This paper addresses the issue of Romanesque sculpture and presents it by means of describing several projecting reliefs preserved in the Romanesque, partially reconstructed, church dedicated to the Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a symbol of Inowrocław. The church is important for the local community. Many publications on Romanesque masks and representations have been published since the 19th century, also recently. It is worth noticing that the opinions of researchers in the fields of history and history of art are inconsistent. This text addresses the ensemble of Inowrocław sculptures analysed from a contemporary research and methodological perspective in respect of the history of medieval art, as such an approach allows for complementing the state of research. Artistic analogies, aesthetic sources, and the practice of ornamenting the Houses of God with stone masks have been presented, and new interpretations of iconography, form, and meaning have been discussed. Formal issues concerning artistic geography, style, significance, meaning, and technique have been considered and compared. Besides, extensive reference has been made to the interpretation of the law of the frame. Another reference has been made with regard to the issue of the cultural meaning that was later provided to these popular artistic objects in Polish art history. A stylistic genesis and the closest formal analogies have been indicated. The starting point for the considerations presented herein was the notion of sites of memory.